Resources

Prophetic Preaching

Let it be said

Preachers of the word to modern minds, must feel that they are like the stones set crosswise the stream, disturbing the deep lucidity. . . by rippling the flow, turning dark water into light and sound. It takes a stone, set the wrong way, to bring out the whiteness and music in the stream.

Then there are morning glory vines and pole-bean vines. It happens that morning glories twine right to left and all other vines twine right to left. Preachers are pole-bean vines and morning glory-vines mixed together. SO it is that when one end of the string is turned, as you twist it on your finger, the other end, which is free, must also turn.

The way each of us turn in our freedom is determined by the meshing of personal gears with the great Gear of creation.

So let it be said:

Say I am a stone
A-slant the imponderable stream,
Quarreling gently with its crucial flow,
Shaking loose the light and music
That I know.

Say I live counter-clockwise to life,
All pole-bean and morning glory vine,
Twining right to left
Instead of left to right,
Let science explain my nonconforming spine.

Say I fight my battle within this civil war,
And bleed my wounds
From blows I never visualize.
Let it be said I am a baffled rebel,
In love with the enemy.

--A.F. Brightbill

Alvin Franz Brightbill taught at Bethany Bible School and then Bethany Seminary from 1925-1968, in the areas of church music, fine arts and religion, and speech.